It's Never Finished
by UndyingSins
Summary: It's a cruel world when you're constantly worrying about what others do to you, but one class at the school these young souls go too gives them such relief that they find their way to live through the torture. AU
1. Chapter 1

**/AN**

**This is just a one-shot for the moment, but depending on what people think of it, I may or may not continue it. This may also end up being a fallback story for me to work on when I hit a writer's block on my other two stories…**

**SUMMARY:**

Life in an orphanage isn't everything it's meant to be. Especially when the matron is a cranky old woman that could care less about what happens to us kids and turned us into a way for her to make money.

Why don't the police do anything? Because our 'services' are restricted to those who know about it and, as our matron so bluntly puts it, who would believe a bunch of orphans? Orphanage by day, hell by night…and we want nothing more than to escape this hell. Once and for all…

**WARNINGS: Romano's language**

**NOTE: This is written in first person, from Feliciano's point of view.**

**/AN**

"Ve…I hope Ludwig's all right now," I muttered. We were huddled inside the small room Fratello and I shared. Alfred, Arthur, Yao, Kiku, Ivan, and Lovino were in here with me, which made the room pretty crowded. We looked outside and gave a group shudder as we watched another day pass by.

"He's got to be doing fine," Alfred replied. "The family that took him seemed really nice."

Kiku nodded. "But, he seemed so sad to leave."

"That's because he didn't want to leave us to this torture…" I muttered as we heard the door open as the first stars lit the night. I grabbed Lovino, whimpering. "I don't want to suffer anymore!"

"Arthur, how's the escape path coming?" Alfred asked.

Arthur sighed. "I hit another cement wall. It's like that old witch anticipated it and sealed us in."

I started crying. We couldn't escape, if we ran while we were at school we were simply caught and taken back, why couldn't this suffering end?

"That bitch is coming," Lovino hissed.

We were quick in setting up in our normal positions. Kiku acted like he meditated in the corner, Lovino and I pretended to be sleeping in one of the bunk beds, Arthur and Alfred played chess in the center of the room, and Yao and Ivan sat on the other bunk with a book between them as they discussed a story. The story varied dependent on which book they happened to grab, but it helped to keep up the façade of what we did.

"No, her going to Wonderland is simply an illusion to show that anyone can make up their own worlds to escape from," Ivan stated.

Yao replied, "That's not true. How could she go inside her own imagination by falling down a rabbit hole?"

"A rabbit hole big enough for her? It was just probably a cavern below the tree roots," Ivan argued. Sounded like they were pretending to read Alice in Wonderland.

My grip on Lovino tightened as we heard the door open.

"Ok, you brats," the matron said. She was an old and overly fat lady that lost her interest in taking care of us a long time ago. As always, she was holding a slip of paper, no doubt with a list of names on it. Ivan was almost certainly not on it, after he managed to grab the faucet pipe from one of the sinks and used it to beat the crap out of one of our 'customers' everyone avoided him…unless they wanted to die. I only hoped my name wasn't on that list. "Tonight, Alfred is going to be in the downstairs bedroom, Kiku, you're in the bedroom on the other end of the hallway, and Feliciano, you're in the upstairs bedroom."

Lovino's grip around me tightened. "Fratello, let go. She'll hurt you again," I muttered dejectedly.

"We'll finish later," Alfred muttered to Arthur as he got up. Kiku followed silently and, even though Lovino's face showed he didn't want to let me go, he pulled away and curled up on the far side of the bed while I got up and followed Alfred and Kiku out of the room. No doubt our 'customers' were already waiting in our assigned rooms to do whatever they wanted to do to us.

For each of us, we have some kind of story. We all arrived here because our parents either died or couldn't take care of us. Lovino and I arrived together, so we knew we were brothers, but once the matron grew sick and tired of taking care of us, she turned us into slaves. I rubbed the purple bruise on my shoulder I got from one of these times. She didn't turn us into the slaves of old America, but rather turned us into sex slaves. We had each been raped multiple times, though some of us had spent the whole time just getting beaten up instead of raped. I was one of the kids that got beaten up more often than raped. We thought it was because those people liked to hear kids screaming, which I was very good at, no matter how much I hated it.

It all had the same end result. We were broken, scared of what people might do to us. It showed on some of us more than others. Fratello and I couldn't have a family adopt us because of how much trauma this nighttime service placed on our lives. Ludwig was one of the lucky ones, though we agreed that part of the fact was that the single father had a biological son that wanted to take Ludwig in as his little brother.

"Bye, America," I muttered.

"I'll see you both in a few hours," Alfred replied, sorrow and worry dripping from his voice in waves.

That was another fact. Once we started receiving an education, we became deeply involved in history, to the fact that we had a special history class at our school all to ourselves were we were the countries, and we acted out what happened in history. We loved the feeling of freedom that it gave us so much we would refer to each other by our country names in these times. It gave us a small bit of hope.

"Italy, don't forget," Kiku stated as we came to the stairs leading upwards.

I nodded. "Marukaite Chikyuu," I muttered. "Don't worry, Japan, I'll remember it."

We separated and I started singing Marukaite Chikyuu to myself. The start of our history classes always had this song. We'd all sing our version that corresponded with the country, but it all had the same effect. 'Draw a circle, that's the Earth' is how the lyrics go, only for us, it gave us such comfort we couldn't help but sing it to one of our friends when they were upset, or if it was just to calm us.

I walked into the room, keeping my eyes on the floor. I shuddered at the tension in the air. This guy was looking forward to what he would do to me.

"What, you're not going to look?" The man asked.

I kept my eyes on the ground, bit my lip, and kept singing Marukaite Chikyuu to myself in my head.

I yelped when my curl was pulled. Naturally, I jumped backwards and nearly fell down the stairs, but this man caught me.

I wish I had fallen down the stairs. It was clear this guy was a heavy drinker, and he had too much of it tonight. He picked me up, his beer breath clogging my nose and causing me to cough. "Now don't be like that," he whispered. "I'll even do you a favor."

With that, I felt him press my neck, hard, and I fell unconscious.

xxx

I came around whimpering, gripping my body as I laid there in the dusty old bed completely naked. The man was gone, but the damage had been done.

The matron wouldn't be around to see if we were going back to our rooms. The only time she would care was if we were dying. That was the only reason she was upset to see Ludwig go. Our Germany was one of her best sex slaves, constantly bringing in people to pay for even just a minute with him. When he was still here, his name was almost always on that dreaded list.

"M-Maru-Marukaite Chi-Chikyuu," I sang to myself through my sobs.

It wasn't until well past midnight, after my tears had dried out and I was forcing myself to stay awake, that everyone else showed up.

"Fratello!" Lovino ran over and started to help me dress, since it was clear the drunken man hadn't held back and had me suffer even more trauma than I had already. I was shaking uncontrollably, and it took a bunch of coaxing from Lovino to get me out of the bed.

Kiku and Alfred walked over next. Their clothes were messily tossed on and it was clear from the shaking in their bodies that they, too, suffered horrible fates.

"Italy," Yao said cautiously, "We've been calling for hours…did he…?"

I nodded. "Yes, China," I replied, starting to sob again.

Everyone was immediately there to comfort me. Alfred and Kiku stood on either side of me.

Answering my unasked question, Kiku winced and looked away, Alfred shuddered. Apparently the man did me a favor by rendering me unconscious.

"They were in the same group," Arthur explained as he helped to straighten Alfred's clothes. "It must have been some special occasion, because they all left together talking about getting more beer."

We all left and went back to the room together. We left the light on and did everything we could to make sure we stayed awake without letting the matron know. If one of us started dozing off, we pinched them until they woke back up. If one of us managed to fall asleep, we stopped at nothing until they woke. This was how our life has been, and it probably wasn't going to change anytime soon. The nightmares that came after being abused were always horrible, and we agreed we shouldn't let someone suffer from them just to sleep.

xxx

"You kids look dreadful!" Our history teacher gasped as we walked in. She went to pick me up but I jumped backwards, whimpering. I was shocked; I had never done that before. If…if I didn't want the one adult I trusted to look after us touching me, then it meant I had been broken to an even worse degree than before. Something that didn't go unnoticed, as a look of concern flashed through the teacher's eyes, and I looked down in sorrow. "Are you sleeping at night?"

The bell rang before we could lie and say we were, though the bags around our eyes and our thin structures would state otherwise.

Our history teacher was a nice brunette we called Hungary, though her real name was Miss Elizabeta. It was Kiku's idea to start calling her Hungary, and it stuck with her.

We sang Marukaite Chikyuu, and it helped my nerves a little bit. This was the one class in school that could help to calm me from the nighttime horrors. Just looking at Alfred and Kiku told me that they felt calmer also.

"Ok, are you guys ready for today's performance?" Hungary asked.

Oh, did I mention that our classroom was located behind our school's auditorium? We would act everything out, and if we liked a specific event enough, we'd practice it until we had it down and showed it to everyone.

"Hey, don't forget me!"

"Ludwig!" We cried as the blonde ran into the room.

The one we called Germany grinned. "Sorry I took a while, I was telling bruder and Vati were the best seats were!" He seemed to realize I hadn't hugged him happily, or made any move to show him how happy I was to see him, and the grin disappeared from his face, but his eyes asked everything.

The only thing I could do was whimper, shudder, and nod.

Hungary seemed to realize there was something wrong, because she told us, "Come on, let's get ourselves ready! England, Veneziano, Romano, you guys have the introduction."

I smiled at her and followed Fratello and Arthur out onto the stage. The spotlight shone down on Arthur, who started, "Today's story neither comes through the passage of time, or the knowing of space."

Now, fratello and I walked forward until we were at the edge of the stage, staring with depressed gazes down into the crowd. It wasn't hard to pick out Ludwig's new family, since we could hear his brother's little bird chirping in front of us.

"Today's story happens far in the future," Arthur continued. "Something that may happen, or may not."

"But the question isn't whether it may happen or may not," I stated, matching my tone to the one Arthur set easily.

Lovino finished, "It is simply how we choose to perceive the events."

This was actually a special request submitted by the school. They asked us to take the countries and put them in an event unrelated to history, so that's where we pulled the introduction from. We had put so much thought and devotion into this, we were happy to finally see it come to life in front of our school.

"Italy! Italy!" Ludwig ran onto the stage the same moment Arthur left to get changed. At the same moment, I spun to face him with Lovino and turned my head to the side. Ludwig was now wearing an old World War Two uniform that we had specially replicated for this play.

"Germany," I muttered softly. I heard everyone shifting forward in their seats so they could hear me. "Help…" I let myself fall backwards as Ludwig screamed, "NO!"

Yao and Kiku really were amazing, though it was Yao controlling everything at the moment. I felt the wire attached to me shoot me into the air and set off the flash to make it seem like Lovino and I disappeared, when really we were now climbing around above the set, getting our new outfits ready.

Below us, Ludwig was walking around, aimlessly calling out 'Italy' until Arthur joined us wearing his Britannia Angel outfit – complete with wings and halo. I checked his wire to make sure he was secure and nodded.

He jumped off the edge and called out, "You shall not find them here, Germany."

Ludwig turned to face him. "What do you mean?"

"They have been taken by dark forces," Arthur replied, tapping his palm with his wand staring at Ludwig as if he were seeing something else. "Right now, those forces are working their ways into all of our hearts, and unless you do something, all of us will fall."

He fell to the ground and crumpled. The gasp from the crowd was instantaneous, but this was part of our act. Ludwig ran over to Arthur just as Alfred and Kiku ran onto the stage from the right side.

"Germany!" Alfred called out. "What happened?"

Germany stood up and turned, saying, "North and South Italy have fallen under the control of a dark force, and it appears that England's Britannia Angel is wounded."

"Any idea on who could do such a thing?" Kiku asked.

Ludwig replied, "Who else could do such a thing and leave no trace until now?"

"Russia," they both replied.

Germany said, "I'll take the Britannia Angel back. Go on ahead and find Italy, we mustn't let this force hold onto them."

"You're forgetting your sash," Lovino hissed, handing me the sash. I looked at him and realized he wasn't wearing his hat, so I replied, "You don't have your hat."

Lovino looked around and grabbed the hat while I got my sash on.

Just in time. Our cue went off and now it was our turn to jump over the side.

"Veneziano! Romano!" Alfred called as we slowed to a stop, looking like we were floating in midair. He stopped running at us when he seemed to realize something was wrong. "Ro-Romano? V-Veneziano?" he stuttered.

I held up my hand and said, "You won't come any farther, America. This is what is meant to happen, and there's no use in trying to change it."

More light, a quick cut to Alfred's uniform and some fake blood made it seem like I had injured him.

"W-what are you two doing?" Kiku asked as he pulled out his kantana.

Lovino replied, "We're just helping to set the future on its correct path, bastard. So you can either join us, or perish like that pathetic angel did."

"Japan-" Alfred looked at him as Kiku stepped back, into the light that would make his clothes black.

"Sorry, friend, but this ends here," Kiku growled.

"No!" We were rejoined by Ludwig, and Yao was close behind him, leaving the controls for our special effects to Ivan.

Yao looked between the three of us, asking, "What do you think you're doing? This isn't what's supposed to happen!"

"Who's to say what happens and what doesn't?" I screamed over him. Just a quick glance at the edge of the stage where Hungary stood showed that I had overcome the hardest part, and possibly made her jump in the process. "We can't predict the future! We can't even change the past! We've got to set the future on a path we feel we can control, can make better for the fate of the human race!"

The look on Yao's face was real. He believed what I said, but he also knew where I got the conviction to shout that with all my belief from, and I could tell he didn't like it.

Neither did I, but we didn't let this hinder our progress.

We had another fight scene, which resulted in Kiku, Yao, Alfred, and Lovino lying on the ground defeated. I was leaning against one of the trees staring at the ground aimlessly while Ludwig stood behind me, looking hesitant to touch me.

I couldn't blame his hesitance, but it was a good thing we set this up with the idea of as little human touch as possible, though this was one of the times he was supposed to touch me.

Only he didn't. "I-Italy?" he finally asked, moving to stand by me.

My head shot up and I looked at him, appearing dazed and confused. "G-Germany. Wh-what happened?"

"We need to go after Russia," Ludwig replied.

I blinked, nodding. I stood up and told him, "I'm coming."

Kiku groaned and sat up, saying, "I'm also coming. He has a lesson to learn."

"Axis Powers," I muttered.

Ludwig nodded, saying, "Axis Powers."

"Axis Powers," Kiku agreed.

The curtain closed for a five minute break while we shifted everything to look like we were now inside a castle. Ivan walked over and sat on the throne while the rest of us moved off stage. When the five minutes were up, the curtain opened. Hungary took up the special effects' controls for this part, so we could all show at once.

We let Ivan sit there for a few moments before walking out on stage. Ludwig was wearing his World War Two outfit, in the five minute break Kiku got the chance to change his clothes so he was wearing a black outfit similar to his white one, and I was still wearing my same clothes with the hat and sash – which we had dubbed my 'pope' outfit.

"Hello, you've come to talk to Mother Russia, da?" Ivan asked, smiling at us.

Ludwig replied, "That'll never happen. Now tell us what you've done and what we can do to reverse it."

"But why should I?" Ivan asked.

"Don't be joking!" I screamed, shaking. "You think this is all-all some sort of game? This isn't a game! This is real life, and this is real emotions being toyed with!"

"You don't like it?" Ivan asked. I had the same effect on him I did on Yao.

And it was clear Kiku did as well. While he was still more soft-spoken than me, he replied with as much conviction, "Yes. What you did to us is wrong and it must be dealt with and reversed. How can we make our decisions for ourselves with you constantly controlling us?"

"Hey, don't count us out!" Alfred called, running on-stage with Arthur, Lovino, and Yao. "We all want to have a little talk with our Russian friend over there!"

"Hm, this appears to be getting to be a bit much," Ivan stated. He stood up and said, "I'll leave this to my pets."

Robotic dogs that Kiku built ran onto the stage.

"Rosario Impale!" I screamed, waving my hand at them and the two dogs exploded.

Ludwig looked Ivan straight in the eyes and said, "If you don't want to be killed, I would suggest you tell us what to do to reverse this."

Ivan sighed and conceded his secret.

And then the bell rang.

xxx

That bell was like a cruel wakeup call and reality crashed down on me again. Hungary walked out onto the stage and said quickly, "I'm sorry, but that's all we have time for today. Give a round of applause for our little stars!"

The crowd was in an uproar, and we all stopped to bow and wave and act like it was all an act.

Only it wasn't. We had put so much truth into that story, only it wasn't in the way people expected the truth to be written. With countries instead of people, we felt the message could be made all the louder, though no one seemed to know the truth behind this story.

We went back to the classroom and talked about how it went. We specifically avoided the topic about how well Alfred, Kiku, and I did on making it sound like we believed what we said.

"Bruder!" An albino crashed into the classroom, a little yellow bird following after him, cried, laughing, and hugged Ludwig. "That was awesome!"

The elder blonde that followed sighed, saying, "Yes, that was quite amazing. I'm guessing you're the teacher?"

"I am," Hungary replied. "Why don't we talk in my office?"

Ludwig's father nodded and they walked into Hungary's office. Hungary turned and told us, "I've gotten permission for you guys to stay here for a while to clean and get changed back into your regular clothes. You're excused until lunch."

"Ok, Hungary," I replied.

The albino sat down in our circle, and I moved away because of the proximity. "Hey, is everything all right?" he asked, going to reach me.

"Don't!" I squeaked, jumping upwards and retreating.

"Gilbert…" Ludwig muttered, looking at him like Gilbert should know what the problem was.

Gilbert seemed to put two and two together. "Oh. Hey, I'm sorry," Gilbert said to me.

I sat back down as Ludwig explained, "I told him exactly what happens in the orphanage."

"I tried to get Vati to adopt the rest of you, but he said dealing with Ludwig is hard enough," Gilbert stated. He looked at us and continued, "Though I think I may know a few people that might be willing to help…"

"Anything to get us out of there," I whimpered.

"I'm not sure how long it'll take," Gilbert stated, "but I'll do my best."

Hungary and their father walked back out at that moment. "Come on, its best we were going, Gilbert. Ludwig, I'll be here at the end of the day to pick you up."

Ludwig nodded. "What about-?"

"I talked it over with Miss Elizabeta and we agreed it will be fine for you to continue in this class," he explained.

"Yay!" I cheered, smiling.

Hungary looked at me in concern. She knew that I would've hugged him at this announcement, but…

"Bye Prussia!" I called.

Gilbert looked surprised, but he grinned and said, "The Awesome Me shall return!"

His new name immediately stuck, as the rest of us were calling him Prussia as he left.

We got up and set to work clearing the stage and putting everything away. We were about to go and put our costumes up with Hungary told us, "You guys can keep those. You deserve them."

We all cheered and went to put them back on, and we spent the rest of the day wearing them instead of our regular clothing.

Though I was sad to see Ludwig leave at the end of the school day. "The orphanage is really lonely without you," I told him. I grinned and added, "But I'm glad you don't have to go through that anymore."

"I may not have too, but that just means you guys suffer all the more," Ludwig replied solemnly.

"It's good you're out of there," I argued. "You were suffering more than any of us."

Ludwig looked ready to argue back, but Alfred called, "Feliciano! We've got to go!"

"Yea," I replied. "Bye, Ludwig."

"Bye, Feliciano," Ludwig replied. He turned and went to where Gilbert and his father were waiting for him, while I turned and walked over to where the rest of the group was standing.

And it left me wondering: Would we ever be able to escape, to have a home like Ludwig?

**/AN**

**If it's any consolation, I was depressing myself just writing this. Depending on how much you guys like it, though, I do already have an idea of where I want to go with this, but I want to know what you thought of this.**

**NOTE: The matron isn't really anyone; she's just a random sideline character, not from the series. And for those of you that don't know where I got the idea for the 'pope' outfit from, it came from RomaHeta.**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


	2. Chapter 2

**/AN**

**Back by popular demand! I'm glad so many of you like this story so much, so here we go with Chapter 2!**

**AN/**

We walked back to the orphanage, still wearing our theater costumes, talking about how it went. We were still careful to avoid the topic of how much we were able to make each other believe what we said.

Arthur opened the door and stopped, staring at something we couldn't see.

"Arthur, you will move, da?" Ivan asked.

When it was clear Arthur wasn't moving, Lovino walked forward and shoved him on his face, then stopped, staring at whatever was inside.

Alfred complained, "What's wrong? Let us in!" He pushed Lovino and tripped over Arthur trying to get inside.

"Are you guys all right?" a voice I didn't recognize asked.

The rest of us tensed. A voice we didn't recognize and the voice sounded like a _kid_. We ran inside and found that we were right. A blond-haired male who didn't appear to be any older than the rest of us was sitting on the stairs, looking at Alfred, Arthur, and Fratello in concern. "Seriously, are they all right?" he asked.

"They will be," Ivan replied.

It was clear we were all thinking the same thing – this was bad. Very, very bad. How did he end up here?

"I'm Francis," the kid greeted us, standing.

"F-Feliciano," I replied.

Francis went to shake my hand and I stumbled backward, tripping over Alfred and whimpering as I clutched my head.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Francis asked, staring wide-eyed in concern.

Yao mouthed at me from behind Francis, _We've got to get him out of here_.

I nodded in agreement. We did need to get Francis out of here, before he became like us. Before he became broken, and who knew how long that would take?

I got up off Alfred, who got off Lovino, who got off Arthur.

"How'd you end up here?" Kiku asked. It seemed strange that he was the one asking, but we were all curious just the same.

"Hm? Oh," his face turned downcast. "My parents were shot to death from some gang leader. It was in their will I be sent here, the matron was a close friend to my family."

So it was more like he was condemned to this fate. "Hey, why don't we move this to the bedroom?" Lovino asked, ushering us up the stairs and into our room.

Lovino and I sat down on the same bunk; Yao tossed Alice in Wonderland onto the makeshift bookshelf with other books and dropped where it was sitting on the bunk. Ivan joined Yao, lying his head on the pillow and staring at the ceiling, Kiku went over to his corner and just sat there, staring at a spot on the wall intently like he was trying to burn a hole through the wood, while Arthur and Alfred took their places on either side of the chess set, examining the game they left there this morning.

This left Francis standing in the middle of the room looking at us. Now that we weren't in anyone else's range of sight, we let the depression show on our faces, the sag of our bodies to show just how tired we were.

We heard snoring and everyone became alert at once, our bodies tensing as we tried to figure out who feel asleep. We looked at the bed Yao and Ivan were sitting on and stared at Yao, who let out another snore.

Ivan, Lovino, and Alfred jumped over to him and grabbed his arms and legs. Arthur joined them and started trying to slap him awake, while I sat nearby to help calm him down.

"AUGH!" Yao came to with a scream, shaking. He was also staring at us like it wasn't us he was seeing. "Don't hurt me!" he cried.

"China! We're not going to hurt you!" I cried over him.

Yao looked around and finally seemed to realize where he was, because he collapsed and started sobbing.

"I-Is that n-normal?" Francis asked, staring in shock.

Kiku walked up next to him, staring at Yao in concern, and explained, "Here, we've got a daytime orphanage and a nighttime hell."

"He's not calming down," Lovino muttered, as Yao started screaming random things again.

I took the position by his head and started singing Marukaite Chikyuu.

"Marukaite Chikyuu, Marukaite Chikyuu, Marukaite Chikyuu, Boku Hetalia, Marukaite Chikyuu, Jitto mite Chikyuu, Hyotto shite chikyuu, Boku Hetalia…" I sang my version of it softly, and by the time I reached the end Yao, Arthur, Alfred, and Kiku had joined in.

"Thanks, Italy," Yao muttered, sitting up. It was clear he was still shaken up, but we had calmed him down.

Francis was staring at us. "What do you mean daytime orphanage nighttime hell?"

"Francis, how did your parents know the matron?" I asked.

"Th-they never said, just that she had a s-service set up they li-liked using," Francis muttered.

We collectively shuddered. We knew that service, but we would not have pinned parents using it, and sending their kid here after they died to suffer through the same thing.

"Does that mean something?" Francis asked, staring at us confused.

Arthur hissed, "We need to change into our clothes! Who knows what the matron will do to these outfits?"

We could hear her coming. I ran over to our chest and pulled out outfits for each of us; passing them around, and gathered the clothes we got from Hungary and hid them under the bunk I shared with Fratello. I closed the chest and quickly got my clothes on and sat down on the other bunk.

We were trained in this. When the matron walked in, we were all sitting where we were before, with Francis still standing in the middle of the room looking around, while the rest of us stared at her, looking as alert as we possibly could.

She sniffed in disgust and said, "Here's dinner." She tossed us a bag and slammed the door.

Alfred caught the bag and sighed. "Arthur…"

"No," Arthur replied immediately.

"But why?" Alfred complained.

Arthur shot back, "You're the one that complains about my scones all the time!"

"But I'm starving!" Alfred complained.

"We all are, bastard," Lovino growled. "Get used to it and pass the bread."

"But it's molded!" Alfred argued.

"Good, maybe if I eat enough I'll get out of this hell," Lovino replied.

I blanched. We had talked about trying to find a way out, but we agreed that we should never, _ever_ resort to poisoning ourselves to do it.

"Fratello, don't," I pleaded. "We agreed we wouldn't do that!"

Lovino growled and looked away.

"Could someone explain what's going on here?" Francis asked, looking at each of us. He finally looked at me and asked, "What happens here?"

I shuddered, whimpered, and hid under the covers.

"Nice job, bastard," Lovino shouted. He immediately went to trying to coax me out from underneath the blankets, but I wasn't going to move.

I heard Arthur say, "You know what sex slaves are, right?"

"Y-yea," Francis stuttered. It was clear he didn't like where this was going.

Ivan told him, "Long story short is that we're sex slaves."

"You're not," Alfred replied miserably. "You're only called out if someone doesn't want to live."

"Wait, what?" Francis asked.

I heard Ivan jump off the bed and say, "Every night for a long time now, the matron has a nighttime service running that, as she says, puts us to more use. Every night, she comes in here and tells us where we are. She'll call the person's name and where they're supposed to go."

Alfred choked, and I heard him go to hide under something. It was probably Yao's and Ivan's bunk.

After a pause, Ivan continued, "While we're in there, we have unimaginable things done to us. You…" his voice dropped to a whisper, and I knew that Ivan asked if he saw the bruises that were left behind on my body.

"Yea, I did…" Francis replied after another pause.

Ivan continued, "Those are from constant beatings. But last night…"

I wasn't sure I liked Ivan telling these things to Francis, so I hid myself even deeper under the covers and started sobbing.

"Now, look, bastard, you've made him upset!" I heard Lovino shout. He started to whisper to me through the covers, in the kindest voice he could manage.

We sat there in silence for a little while, until Arthur, who must've been looking out the window, solemnly stated, "Nighttime."

"Hell," Yao replied as we heard the downstairs door open.

I crawled out from under the covers. I wasn't sure how hard I was crying, but it must've been hard because when they looked at me, concern flashed through their faces.

Fratello took a handkerchief and was about to start wiping off my face when I retreated and fell off the bed. It was clear I had hurt him, but he also understood why I did it.

Francis stared, understanding donning his gaze now.

We heard the matron coming and I hid under the bed. I looked around and realized that Kiku must've joined Alfred, because he had disappeared.

The matron stomped in and growled, "Where are the other three?"

Reluctantly, I crawled out from underneath the bed while Alfred and Kiku crawled out from underneath the bed Yao and Ivan were sitting on and felt something painful lash across my back. I cried out and collapsed. Not even my clothes did anything to take away the pain.

"Feliciano!" Lovino cried from on top of the bed as I started sobbing again.

"Oh, shut it, brat," the matron growled. She pulled out the list and stated, "Yao is in the downstairs bedroom, Lovino is in the top bedroom."

We watched as Yao and Lovino left, their sag clear they weren't looking forward to what would happen.

I felt another lash of pain across my back, and cried in time with Kiku and Alfred. "Don't try that again, or there will be worse consequences," the matron growled before leaving, still holding the whip in her hand.

I curled up, gripping my legs tightly and sobbed. I could feel blood coming out of my back. She must've broken the skin on one of my bruises, because it hurt so much.

Francis leaned down next to me. "What can we do?" he asked, looking at Ivan and Arthur with concern.

In answer, Arthur started singing Marukaite Chikyuu, Ivan quickly joining in. I let my body relax and let the song wash over me, calm me and soothe me, and joined in singing until we were finished.

Francis seemed amazed one simple song took the three of us in sobbing messes and calmed us down enough to join in singing it.

"I-I'd like to learn that song," Francis stated.

Arthur nodded. "You'll be coming with us to school tomorrow. We all have the same classes, so you can join us in our history class."

"But who would he be?" Ivan asked.

Francis, again, seemed confused.

"France," I said.

"But that's the name of a country," Francis replied.

"France fits," Arthur agreed, continuing on to explain, "Our history class is special. It's also our only safe haven. What happens is that while we're in that class, we aren't tortured souls who have to go through that every night." He waved his hand at the door, motioning to where Yao and Lovino were.

I picked it up. "While we're in that class, we're countries, and we can do anything we want. We re-reen…reenact events that happen in the world and even perform some of them to the school."

Alfred nodded. "You heard us calling each other by our country names earlier."

Ivan finished, "When we're called by our country names, we're remained of that inkling of a normal life we have, and can continue on with the rest of what happens."

"And…it's also that one class that allows us to forget about what happens here," I add, remembering the play we did that very same day and how I had forgotten about this horrid place until that dreaded bell rang.

Arthur nodded. "In that class, I'm England."

"I'm America, and Kiku here is Japan," Alfred added.

Ivan grinned mischievously, saying, "I'm Mother Russia, and Yao is China."

"And Fratello and I are Italy!" I finished.

"But there's only one Italy…" Francis muttered.

I nodded. "We form the north and south halves. I'm North Italy, Italy Veneziano, and Fratello is South Italy, Italy Romano."

"Then Miss Elizabeta, our teacher, is Hungary," Kiku said.

"And Ludwig is Germany," Alfred stated.

Francis looked around, like he was expecting another kid to show up. "Ludwig?"

"He's not here anymore," I said, relief in my voice. "He was able to get a family to adopt him. You'll be able to meet him tomorrow."

Arthur hushed us and slid over to the door. He put his ear to it before opening it up a crack. "Ok, they've left."

"Has the matron gone to bed?" Kiku asked.

Arthur paused for a moment. We heard a door close and filed out of the room.

"Aren't we supposed to remain here?" Francis asked.

Kiku explained, "As long as we don't let her know we're out, she'll never know. Besides, this is something we normally do. If not, Yao and Lovino will be likely to remain where they are the whole night, and they need us."

"Alfred, Kiku, Francis, go find Yao," Arthur ordered. "Feliciano and I will go find Lovino. Ivan, make sure the matron doesn't wake up."

"Da," Ivan replied. We split up and headed for the respective bedrooms.

I ran up the stairs and saw Lovino shaking on the bed, crying. "Fratello!" I cried, running over to him. This time it was him that moved away from my touch.

"Fratello, please, you've got to come back down," I coaxed while Arthur started gathering his clothes.

"What's the point?" Lovino replied, sobbing. "There's nothing we can do to change this!"

"That's not true, Romano," Arthur pointed out. He walked over and, setting Lovino's clothes down on the bed, continued, "Don't forget we do have someone that worries about us. She'll find a way to help us."

I nodded, though I wasn't sure what Hungary might be able to do to help us, I agreed with him all the same. "England's right," I said. "Hungary will find some way to help us."

After a bit more coaxing, we got Lovino into his clothes and back downstairs in our room. After a few minutes, the rest of the group joined us. Yao was shaking uncontrollably and still sobbing.

It was clear on Francis' face that he didn't like what he saw. "This…This happens every night?" he asked.

"Three hundred sixty-five days a year," Arthur grumbled.

"Why don't the police do anything?" Francis asked, clearly trying to grasp an answer.

Lovino replied, "They don't know. The matron has a very special way in telling people about this place, in such a way the police would never guess, and, as she so constantly likes to remind us, who would believe a bunch of orphaned kids?"

I shuddered. Everything Lovino said was true, and we still hated it.

"But, the teachers at your school must realize something's wrong," Francis stated.

Yao mumbled something, and Alfred quickly said, "Hush. You don't need to talk. You've been through a lot."

"Yea, but…" Yao started before sobbing. He choked out through his sobs, "This…this one was-was-was the-the principal." With that, he broke down and started crying.

This came to us as a shock. Even our school's _principal_ was in on this?

Francis seemed truly at a loss for options now. "Why don't we all get some sleep?"

We stared at him like he just suggested we eat poisonous spiders. Although, if this kept up, that may just end up being what we would do.

"What?" Francis asked.

Another collective shudder. Lovino explained, "We don't sleep."

"We suffer nightmares when we sleep," I said, whimpering at the same time.

Francis looked all the more displeased. One thing was for certain, though, we would hate watching him become like us. Another dejected soul that had to live day by day waiting to suffer more torture.

xxx

We arrived at school the next day dressed in our regular clothes, but over the night we made makeshift bags for us to carry our history/theater things around in. Right now, each of us had our outfits inside these bags, and we labeled them by placing the flag of our country on it. These bags were crude, but we wouldn't need to carry anything really heavy in them, so they should do.

"Hey!" Ludwig ran up to us. Just since yesterday, he appeared to be much better. He grinned, but didn't make a move to touch us. I stared into his eyes and saw that he was still scarred, and all of us probably would remain scarred from what happened for the rest of our lives, but at least Ludwig's got the chance to live a life outside of what he had to go through.

"Hey, Ludwig," I replied, smiling.

Ludwig looked at us, his eyes landing on Francis. His muscles tensed immediately, but he couldn't remark because we heard someone pass us and say, "Good Morning, kids."

Yao winced and looked away, gripping his arms in protection. The person that passed was our principal, and Yao's motions didn't get past Ludwig, because his eyes darkened in concern.

We moved ourselves inside and made our way to our history classroom. It was always unlocked in case Miss Elizabeta was running late, and we, guiltily, hoped that might be the case right now so we could have some time to talk in private.

No such luck. We walked in and weren't greeted with just Miss Elizabeta, but also a young man with black hair, glasses, and a mole.

We hadn't seen him before, but we weren't sure what to think.

"Good morning," Hungary said, putting some papers away in her desk. "This is a guest to our class, Mr. Roderich."

We mumbled all sorts of 'hi's, and it was clear Francis was the most energetic about seeing him. The only thing that ran through our heads was another potential customer like the principal.

**/AN**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


	3. Chapter 3

We went to our desks and placed the bags on them before moving to our little corner to talk. Miss Elizabeta walked over and talked to Mr. Roderich, since we still had a while before class officially started.

"Who's he?" Ludwig asked, nodding at Francis.

"I'm Francis," he said, holding out his hand to shake. It was clear in his expression he wasn't expecting Ludwig to take it, so he was surprised when Ludwig did.

"I'm Ludwig," he replied, pulling away.

Francis nodded, asking, "You lived at the orphanage?"

"Up until a few days ago," Ludwig replied. Then, he turned to Yao, before thinking better of it and directing the question at Alfred. "What happened?"

Yao whimpered, and Alfred pat Yao's back. "The principal," Alfred replied simply.

I whispered in Ludwig's ear, "He was at the orphanage last night and…"

I didn't need to finish. Ludwig's eyes hardened in understanding. The majority of people we had arrive were people we'd never see again, especially outside the orphanage, so having it be someone you saw multiple times in one day would really take its toll on Yao.

We looked up when the bell rang. We hadn't realized so much time had passed, so we went to our seats.

Miss Elizabeta smiled at Francis as he stood at the edge of the classroom, looking confused on where to sit. "You must be Francis," she said, kneeling in front of him.

Francis nodded. "I am, are you Hungary?"

"Yes," she replied, smiling at Francis. "Have you gotten a country yet?"

"France," he answered.

"The country of romance," Hungary said. She looked at the seats and said, "Choose anywhere while I get you the lyrics for your version of our song."

He took the desk next to me and looked at me. "What lyrics is she talking about?" he asked as Hungary walked into her office.

"For Marukaite Chikyuu," I replied. Then dropped my voice lower so Mr. Roderich wouldn't hear me, and explained, "It's the song you heard us singing last night."

Francis nodded and took the sheet of paper from Hungary. He looked down and frowned.

"I can help you understand them," Kiku said from Francis' other side.

Francis nodded as Hungary had us sing Marukaite Chikyuu. We agreed on one fact, Francis was a natural when it came to singing it. He already had the chorus down and just needed to learn the parts that were exclusive to France.

Hungary leaned against her desk, staring at us for a few moments.

I blinked, worried she might think there was something wrong. Not that anything was right outside this class, but I didn't like the way she stared at us.

Finally, she said, "We've been asked by the other history classes to reenact the American Revolution. Considering this fight is mostly between America and England, we're going to have the rest of you act as backup cast for the moment."

We nodded. One of the reasons we opted not to perform the American Revolution was because it was only between America and England. We tried picking ones that involved as many of the countries we had as possible, like the World Wars.

"We're going to start on that tomorrow," Miss Elizabeta said. "For today, I think it would be fine for us to show Mr. Roderich and Francis what it is we do in this class."

Again, we nodded. Francis already had an idea about what we did from our explanation, but we weren't sure what Mr. Roderich was told.

I raised my hand. "Yes, Veneziano?" Hungary asked.

"What would you like to have us show Mr. Roderich?" I asked, trying my best to ignore the double meaning behind my words…he seems so nice, I would hate for him to show up at the orphanage because he was here for what we thought he was.

"I was actually hoping to see the performance you kids did yesterday," Mr. Roderich said. "From what Elizabeta tells me, it was quite a sight to behold."

We nodded and grabbed our bags, pulling out the outfits we wore yesterday.

It was easy to tell we had surprised and pleased Miss Elizabeta. "Did you guys make these all by yourselves?"

"Yup!" we cried, grinning.

She walked over to my desk and took a closer look at mine. "And you even put the flag on it. How wonderful!"

I'm willing to admit it, Miss Elizabeta's compliment made me feel proud. It was such a happy feeling in my chest I couldn't even begin to describe it.

Now Arthur raised his hand. "Yes, England?"

"Maybe we could improvise on what we did yesterday," Arthur stated.

"Who agrees that's what we should do for today?" Hungary asked, looking at the rest of us.

Our reply was instant. We all agreed and Yao, Ivan, and Alfred gave verbal agreements.

"Then England, Veneziano, Romano, be out on the stage ready in five," Hungary said, moving to talk to Mr. Roderich again.

We huddled in our group and made our way to the door, talking to each other about possible revisions. I took one last look at Mr. Roderich and Miss Elizabeta before entering the auditorium and found Mr. Roderich staring intently, and I shuddered.

xxx

Ludwig was out on the stage wandering around again, and it was already clear we were taking the improvision for all it was worth. Instead of white light flashing when Fratello and I 'disappeared', it was a bloody red and Ludwig was currently cast in a light of the same color.

Again, Arthur joined us.

"You didn't-" I started

"No, these are just copy, my real ones are fine," Arthur explained, motioning to the tattered clothes that appeared to be his Britannia Angel outfit. He grinned and stated, "Looks like the Britannia Angel found some trouble."

"No kidding," Fratello grumbled.

Again, I checked the wire and nodded. Arthur jumped over the edge and slowed to a stop.

"Germany-" Arthur muttered before collapsing to the ground.

Ludwig ran over as Alfred and Kiku joined him on stage, this time along with Francis.

"What happened?" Francis asked, staring at Arthur.

Ludwig shook his head. Kiku looked at the other end of the stage and said, "Don't look now, but we've got company."

"You'll join Mother Russia, da?" Ivan asked, standing there like it was natural.

"Like hell we will!" Alfred cried, pulling out a makeshift sword and running for Ivan.

I tugged Lovino's sleeve and jumped over the edge, shouting, "Rosario Impale!"

Yao must've played with the lights some more, because this time everything went dark like my attack was black.

I liked how they made it seem like I had attacked Ivan instead of Alfred, because Ivan let himself get covered in fake blood, but he just stood there grinning.

I glanced at Francis. He just stood there, wondering what to do. He looked at me in question and I simple nodded, motioning for him to try something.

"H-hey!" Francis cried, visibly shaking, no doubt from the nerves. "What's going on here?"

"Do you not like it?" Ivan asked. He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

I had to force myself to not grin when Lovino came down next to him, looking as controlled as ever. "Romano, what're you doing?" I cried, frowning instead.

"Helping," Lovino replied, holding up his hand.

"Rosario Impale!" we cried at the same time. This time while both lights flashed, I cut my own wire and landed on the ground, walking up between Ludwig and Kiku.

Kiku was simply standing there watching. "You think what you're doing is right?" Kiku asked, staring at Ivan.

"Da," Ivan replied. "Though it seems like my experimenting hasn't fully paid off if you've still got Veneziano on your side."

"I could never betray my friends!" I told him, holding up my hand like I was getting ready to attack again.

Only this time Lovino beat me to it. "Rosario Impale!" he cried, swinging his hand at Ludwig.

I jumped in front of Ludwig and let myself be the one to get covered in our fake blood.

"Veneziano!" Ludwig gasped from behind me.

I looked at him, smiling, keeping one of my eyes closed and slightly wobbling on my feet to add to the effect of just how bad the attack was. "I said I wouldn't betray you…" I muttered before joining Arthur on the ground.

"H-Hey! How could you do that to your own brother?" Francis cried, clearly trying to talk to Lovino.

Looking at me, grinning like a fool and laughter in his eyes, was Arthur. He was supposed to be unconscious, but I joined him in grinning anyway. We always enjoyed changing what happened with plays we had already completed, and this was just plain fun! Besides, it wasn't like anyone in the audience would see our faces.

Arthur mouthed, _I wish I could go change back into England and join them._

I simply grinned in reply, wishing I could do something to help them now that I was supposedly 'dead'.

"Aiyaa! What happened here?" Yao asked, running onto the stage. "I tell you guys to wait for me, that I'm running late, and you come ahead anyway?"

"Well, sorry," Alfred replied, the sarcasm in his voice clearly saying he was anything but sorry.

Arthur winked at me, mouthing, _Follow my lead._

_Yea_, I replied, almost positive I knew what Arthur was going to do.

Ivan said, "It won't matter if you have a hundred people on your side, they're all going to fall against me and Romano."

Arthur twitched, before groaning and sitting up. In the few moments that passed, his gaze turned into a crazy person's. He stood up and muttered, "Payment must be paid…" before jumping at Alfred.

"Whoa! What're you doing?" Alfred cried, barely dodging Arthur.

Ivan smiled, saying, "Why, what I wish, da?"

"Yes…" I muttered, sitting up also, letting the blank look I had practiced for our actual performance overcome my face. "Whatever you wish…"

"Veneziano, don't do this!" Ludwig cried, stepping backwards.

Kiku followed, saying, "Please, you don't need to!"

"But I do," I muttered, holding my hand up and saying, "Rosario Impale."

At the same time, Lovino motioned at Yao and Francis and said, "Rosario Impale…"

There were two flashes of light and the only ones standing were Ivan, Arthur, Lovino, and me. Everyone else had pretended to crumple to the ground.

"Now we can create this world the way we want, da?" Ivan asked.

All three of us turned to him, saying, "Yes…"

We let the curtain fall shut and started helping everyone up. Now that we had finished, we were all laughing and cheering and just having a great time about what happened and congratulating others on their improvision ideas.

Alfred told Arthur, "The idea to come back as Ivan's henchman was genius!"

"Jumping down to help us was brilliant," Ludwig told me.

I grinned, piping up above all of them, "My favorite one was Francis asking Fratello how he could harm me."

Francis blushed, shaking his head. "It wasn't as great as what you guys did!"

"Are you joking? That _was_ great!" Yao agreed. "It was like challenging his humanity and sense of morals."

"What morals?" Lovino replied, and we all broke down laughing.

Miss Elizabeta and Mr. Roderich walked up. "Oh, that was a splendid," Miss Elizabeta said.

"It was indeed," Mr. Roderich agreed. "I look forward to seeing what you kids can do in the future."

"Thanks, Mr. Roderich!" I said.

Miss Elizabeta grinned. "Mr. Roderich is going to be here for a few weeks to see how you guys progress and help if any of you have problems."

"Well, you can't remain around that long without a country name!" Alfred said.

Mr. Roderich chuckled. "Well, what do you think would be good for me?"

"Austria!" we cried at once, causing all of us to break out in fits of giggles again.

Miss Elizabeta clapped, whispering something Mr. Roderich who smiled and nodded.

Then, again, the bell rang.

xxx

By the end of the school day we were still talking about the improvisions we did earlier that day and coming up with possible ideas to improv the Revolutionary War. The one we all liked so far was everyone else randomly falling off the rafters above the stage looking like we just had a major party and asking England and America what they were doing. Our other favorite was Ivan wandering onto the stage asking for directions to Narnia to prove a point to Yao.

It wasn't up until we had to say goodbye to Ludwig we actually remembered where it was we were returning too.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Ludwig promised.

I nodded, saying, "And we will too!"

Everyone else chimed in agreement and he went in the different direction.

I looked up, frowning. "I don't like the clouds…" I muttered, staring at the darkening gray sky.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Arthur stated.

We looked at each other before running. We didn't want to get caught in the rain.

By the time we got back to the orphanage, it was raining, and the drops were really starting to come down hard. We went inside, dripping wet, and quickly made our way upstairs so we could get some dry clothes.

"Well, at least we know the bags work," I said, opening mine to see that my clothes were still dry. I gathered everyone's bags and hid them under the bed so the matron wouldn't take them.

Once we were all sitting, Francis joining Alfred and Arthur at the chess set, we started talking about some more ideas on what we could do to change the Revolutionary War. We had already agreed it would be boring to make it seem like England was the one that won.

We stopped when we heard footsteps coming, and stared at the door. The matron walked in and sniffed, saying, "Feliciano, Lovino, there are some people here."

We perked up. People here before nighttime meant they were looking to adopt. We jumped off the bed and ran out of the room, though I didn't miss the look of hope that passed over the faces on everyone else in the room.

We had to try and calm ourselves down. We walked into the interview room, which wasn't terribly well kept, and sat down opposite the couple across from us.

Just by looking, they appeared to be newly married and, mostly likely, just finished their honeymoon.

"Hello," the female greeted us. She had a warm smile, slightly tinted cheeks with freckles on them, and brown hair held back in a bun. Sitting next to her was a male that appeared to be rather intimidating. His mouth was set in a surly frown as he examined us and his blond hair looked like it wouldn't dare move out of place.

I looked at his gaze and couldn't help but shudder, though I was able to give a meek 'hello' in return.

"You two must be Feliciano and Lovino," the female said warmly. When we nodded, she smiled, saying, "I'm Angie, and this is my husband Bert."

"It's very nice to meet you," I said, keeping my eyes trained on Angie, because I didn't want to look at the gaze Bert had.

Angie looked down at two papers sitting in front of her, saying, "We weren't given very much information here about you two. What are you two interested in?"

"History," we replied at the same time.

I quickly glanced at Bert, and felt my nervousness increase on the look of disdain in Bert's eyes.

"Really?" Angie asked, trying to act interested. "What is it you find so interesting about it?"

We fell silent. This is where things normally started getting awkward, because how could we explain that the reason we enjoyed history was acting everything out like we were there, and that it was the only class that could allow us to forget everything that happened here?

Angie blinked, looking at Bert.

Bert looked back, before turning to us and asking in a voice that sounded like a growl, "You two into sports?"

We glanced at each other. We had played different sports in Gym, and we didn't like a lot of them. I had written off anything having to do with a ball or a Frisbee that could be sent flying your way, and that was nearly every sport. I wasn't sure about Lovino's reasons, but I knew he didn't particularly enjoy them either.

We shook our heads no. "We're not really the sports type," Lovino growled. I could tell he made sure he didn't include _bastard_ on the end of that statement.

"What do you guys do in your free time then, instead of tossing around a ball?" Bert asked.

We fell silent again. We had learned to ignore it, but when we first started school and our peers realized we sang, they taunted all of us ruthlessly…until Ivan sent a few to the hospital. How would these two react to us telling them that we sang and performed?

We sat there like this for a while. Angie, at one point, moved closer so she could see us better. She looked at me and asked, "Are you getting enough sleep?"

"Of course," I replied, the lie coming readily to my lips.

Angie looked at me for a few more moments before moving over to Lovino, asking the same thing. Lovino said he was as well, and Angie moved back to her seat. It was easy to tell that she didn't believe us by the concern that was written on her face.

It was also easy to tell we weren't going to be adopted.

Finally, Bert looked at the clock and said, "Well, we really must be going. We'll think about it and get back to your matron on the matter."

We nodded and turned to leave. As we were walking out the door, I heard Angie muttering, "Those poor kids aren't getting enough sleep. They've got symptoms of someone who's got a lack of sleep…and something else…"

"Well?" Alfred asked when we reentered the bedroom, but our downtrodden looks must've said it all, because he fell silent again.

We returned to our bed and sat back down. I let out a huge yawn, and almost immediately everyone else followed, complaining about it.

Nighttime came, and we heard the front door opening.

"Another night," Arthur muttered.

Alfred replied, "Another hell."

Lovino muttered something that sounded like an agreement.

Soon enough, the matron was standing there, list in her hand, looking at us. "We've got a busy night tonight," she stated.

We shuddered. That was never a good thing. "Arthur and Francis are in the downstairs bedroom, Arthur on the left and Francis on the right. Feliciano and Kiku, you're both on the other end of the hall, Feliciano on the left and Kiku on the right, and Yao is in the upstairs room."

**/AN**

**Angie and Bert are random people and I randomly made Angie a nurse-in-training.**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


	4. Chapter 4

**/AN**

**Why are there two chapters one right after the other? Simple face was that I could not sleep last night. I got about two and a half hour's sleep and couldn't go back to sleep, so I wrote this and did the editing in the DEAD OF NIGHT.**

**And I'm still running on those two and a half hours writing the next chapter and editing it right now.**

**AN/**

We blinked, all five of us getting up. It had been a long time since we had a list that long, but that didn't mean the same thing to us as it did to her. It just meant more broken spirits. Alfred, Lovino, and Ivan didn't appear the slightest bit happy about letting all of us leave. And poor Yao, having to go through this torture two nights in a row…

We split up as our paths separated. I took one last, long look at Francis, trying to memorize everything of the young soul who hadn't been harmed yet, because I knew that this would be the last time I saw him like this. When we saw each other later tonight, he'd be broken.

"Italy, Japan, I'll see you both later," Yao muttered, looking at the staircase and frowning.

Just like Kiku told me two nights ago, I told Yao, "Don't forget the song."

"Marukaite Chikyuu," Yao replied, nodding.

"We'll all remember it," Kiku muttered.

I agreed, joining Kiku in walking down the hallway. Kiku asked after a few moments, "Are your wounds doing any better?"

"The only noticeable one is on my shoulder, but I still do have a few other bruises," I replied.

Kiku nodded. "The one on your shoulder was nasty, but is it at least looking better?"

I thought about that for a moment, the last time I looked, it was still purple, but it wasn't as bad of a shade as before, and it was starting to become smaller. "Yea," I finally replied.

Soon enough, we came to the end of the hallway. I looked at the open doors and frowned similar to how Yao did to the staircase. "I'll see you later, Veneziano," Kiku muttered, walking into the one on the right.

"Bye, Japan," I replied solemnly, walking into the left one.

I looked up and recognized the guy almost immediately. I wasn't sure if he was a part of some gang or not, but he had a bald head with a tattoo of a snake starting above his left ear running down his neck and disappearing into his shirt. He was one of the ones that came more often, and no matter how many times he came, there was always a few things that remained constant. He never raped, just beat. And, whenever he came, he always picked me because he enjoyed beating up on me. I winced, suddenly feeling the bruise on my shoulder in excruciating pain. When he gave me that wound, he had used the handle on his gun and did not hold back.

He closed the door behind me and asked, "And how are you doing tonight?"

I shuddered, keeping silent.

"So, how should we start this tonight?" he asked, circling around me.

I noticed that this time around he had spikes on his shoes. He has stepped on me in the past, and I really hoped he wouldn't do it now.

I gasped as I felt him grab me by my throat and lift me into the air, choking me. I grabbed at his hand and tried to make him loosen his hold.

"Good, I thought they might have broken you a little too hard, my little screamer," the man muttered, before chucking me into the wall.

True to his word, I screamed from the pain when I crashed into the wall, and crumpled when I hit the ground. Already, I could feel a new bruise forming from where I crashed.

I screamed again when I felt him step on me, pinning me where I was with those spikes on his shoes.

Those spikes hurt! I could feel them pushing into my skin, and some of them even managing to draw a little bit of blood. I tried moving but that just made it worse, and I screamed again, feeling tears starting to well up in my eyes.

The man picked me back up, this time by the back of my shirt, and said, "Maybe it's been too long, if you haven't started wailing yet. We'll fix that." He chucked me across the room again, and I screamed as I hit the opposite wall. This time, though, when I hit the ground I felt dizzy, and I gripped my head in pain. Almost unwillingly, I could feel the tears starting to come out of my eyes.

"Hey! Could you keep that kid quiet?" The person across the hall, in Kiku's room, shouted. "I'm trying to enjoy myself here!"

The man snarled, opened the door, and replied, "Then ignore this brat and get back to what you want! I'm not exactly yelling at you for all the noise the kid you've got is making."

Had Kiku been making noise? I couldn't be sure, though now that I listened, I could hear Yao upstairs, almost directly above us.

I screamed when the man grabbed me and looked again. "There, that's more like it," he muttered, seeing the tears running down my face. Then he rammed me into the backboard of the bed and pulled out a knife, stabbing my shirt to the wood and leaving me hanging there.

I wasn't sure how long I had been left like that taking punches from him, but by the time he pulled out the knife and left, leaving me to drop onto the bed in another sobbing mess, I had lost all feeling in just about every part of my body. Every feeling except pain. My muscles were screaming from it, and it hurt to move. Where he did throw in an occasional kick was easily told by the fact that I had blood coming out of the wounds, and it had a different kind of pain, but I couldn't feel the blood as it slipped out of my body and rand down onto the bed.

I managed to take a look at my body and whimpered at what I saw. My clothes were nearly ripped to shreds from his shoes and I was bleeding from various points in my body. Some of them looked like stab wounds, but the majority of these were cuts. They probably wouldn't be enough to kill me, though.

"V-Veneziano!" I heard Kiku cry, running into the room. He joined me on the bed and I saw he probably grabbed his clothes while he was running, because they were messily tossed on and it looked like his shirt was inside out.

I sobbed, "J-Japan!"

"It's all right," Kiku crooned, looking over my body at all the fresh wounds on it, his face revealing just how horrified he was at seeing my body in this state.

He had just started singing Marukaite Chikyuu when Lovino ran in, joining us on the bed. He explained, "We could hear from our room. Was it the biker guy?"

I nodded, whimpering.

Lovino looked hesitant for a moment, but he finally pulled me into a hug. I didn't argue with him, though the truth was that it really hurt because of all my bruises and he'd probably have blood on his shirt later.

"This really is worse than before," I heard Lovino mutter to Kiku as we went back to our room.

We were the first ones back, Lovino and Kiku getting me to lie down on the bed immediately so Kiku could look at and tend to my wounds. By now, Kiku had finished singing and I was feeling calmer, if only slightly.

About a minute or two later, Ivan returned with Yao, who was in a sobbing mess. Yao stopped when he saw me lying on the bed with Kiku tending to my wounds, though.

"Veneziano, are you all right?" Yao asked, running over.

"I will be," I replied, wincing as Kiku poked a newly forming bruise. "What about you?"

Yao nodded. Kiku pat my shoulder carefully, asking, "Could you cough?"

I tried. It took a few attempts, but when I finally did, I looked at my hand and found it was covered in blood.

I froze in terror when Kiku muttered, "Internal bleeding."

"Can you fix it?" Lovino asked.

Kiku didn't reply, but rather slid off the bed, motioned to Yao, and the two went over to a corner and whispered.

Alfred walked in at this point. He froze when he saw me lying down on the bed with my bruises and the blood on my hand, and watched as Kiku and Yao rejoined us. He looked ready to remark, but stopped when Kiku spoke to Ivan.

"Russia, do you think you can sneak into the medicine cabinet and grab a pill for dreamless sleep?" Kiku asked.

"Da," Ivan replied. He turned and left, just as Arthur and Francis walked in.

Oh, poor Francis. He was clutching Arthur's arm for dear life and sobbing like a baby.

"Why is Russia leaving?" Arthur asked.

Kiku explained, "I need to get a dreamless sleep pill for Veneziano."

Arthur took one look at me and said, "Yea, we could hear him from downstairs. That guy had no mercy on him this time…"

"Hey, you damn bastard, will you be able to help Veneziano?" Lovino asked Kiku.

"Romano," I muttered, "Don't."

It hurt to talk, and it made all of them reprimand me with versions of 'Don't talk' and 'You're hurt!', but I didn't want Lovino to yell at Kiku for something he may not be able to heal.

Kiku explained, "I can't handle the internal bleeding. I'm hoping that the pill will allow him to rest long enough so we can get him a proper doctor tomorrow."

"They're going to ask why," Alfred pointed out.

Kiku nodded, saying, "I know."

This whole time, I was staring at Francis, he had stopped sobbing, and was now looking at me, but he hadn't let go of Arthur. We looked at each other and, while I couldn't see it, I could tell that the person who was in that room with him was as dreaded to him as the biker was to me, he just didn't leave behind any physical scars.

Ivan returned and handed something to Kiku. He nodded and Alfred got a cup of water from the bathroom across the hall.

"Romano, help me set Veneziano up," Kiku instructed. "It'll be easier for him to take the pill this way."

I cried out in pain a few times as they were helping me sit up, and once I finally was I was gasping for breath, tears running down my face.

Kiku gave me the pill and water. I was about to protest, saying that we shouldn't take the medicine pills unless it was absolutely necessary because we seen what becoming druggies would do to us from our customers, when Kiku told me, "You need it. Your body needs to recuperate more than anything else right now, and sleep is one of the easiest ways to do so."

I paused, looking at him before nodding, placing the pill in my mouth and drinking the water until the cup was empty. Lovino took the cup from me and gave it back to Alfred while Kiku and Yao helped me back into a sleeping position on the bed.

The final thing I saw before I fell asleep was Kiku walking over to Francis and asking if he was okay, while the last thing I heard was Ivan, Lovino, and Yao starting to sing Marukaite Chikyuu to me again.

xxx

When I woke up, it was to an empty bedroom. My body was still sore, but for the first time in a very, very long time I felt rested. I tried sitting up, but cried out in pain from the sudden actions.

Immediately, everyone came charging in.

"Are you alright?"

"Is everything fine?"

"Did you have nightmares?"

They barraged me with questions while Lovino joined me on the bed and helped me into a sitting position.

"W-what time is it?" I asked.

Arthur, who still had Francis hugging his arm for dear life, said, "It's almost time for us to get ready to go to school. We thought it would be best to let you have as much sleep as possible. Did you dream?"

"No," I replied. Now we only had to hope the matron didn't realize that single pill was missing from her medicine cabinet. I was sure it wouldn't be a problem, though, and that Ivan had already dealt with it.

Kiku walked up and asked, "Are you feeling any better?" He was examining my bruises, frowning at the worse ones.

"Yes, though I'm still sore," I replied.

Kiku nodded. Without his asking, I went and coughed into my hand.

We were horrified to find that there was still blood on it.

In an attempt to take our mind off the blood, Yao said, "Veneziano, you're actually pretty lucky."

"Bastard, how is he lucky?" Lovino cried.

"He could've had bones broken," Yao pointed out. "That would be a problem, one we couldn't deal with very easily and should be seen by an expert right away, so imagine what would happen to the bone if he had to wait until now for the bone to be checked."

We fell silent. I was still just coming to terms with the injuries that had been done to my body, and I wondered how much longer this could go on without one of us getting killed.

Francis muttered from Arthur's shoulder, his voice sounding completely dead, "Shouldn't we be getting ready for school?"

"Yes," we agreed. Lovino and Kiku helped me off the bed, being careful to avoid my bruises and helped me get into some clothes suitable for school.

They refused to let me try getting the bags out from underneath the bed Lovino and I sat on, and instead had Alfred retrieve them.

We went downstairs, looking at the door trying to act like nothing was wrong. I knew, though, that all of them were keeping a close eye on me in case I tripped or did something that could end up hurting me even more. I didn't take it as a good sign I was starting to struggle on my breathing either.

"Where do you kids think you're going?" the matron asked as Arthur went to open the door.

We looked at her. Alfred said, "We're going to school. Where else?"

"Oh, no one gave you the news?" the matron asked.

"What news?" We cried.

The matron grinned evilly. "Those bigwigs up at Government Central decided that the money they were using to send you kids, along with thousands of other orphans around the country, could put the money to better use on the national debt. You don't have anymore school to go to, no one is paying for it."

**/AN**

**Uh-oh…that's really all I can say without having to put a spoiler warning on this.**

**And sorry for the short chapter! (Yes, it's short. It's the shortest chapter yet according to my Word's page count...and the Word count...)**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


	5. Chapter 5

"What?" Arthur asked.

The matron nodded, saying, "No more school for you little kiddies. Just go back up to your rooms and stay there the whole day. You've got more than enough stuff to keep you occupied, so I don't want to hear you brats." With that, she turned and walked back into her office.

We stared at each other. No more school? No more seeing Ludwig and Miss Elizabeta? No more history classes and planning our acts and forgetting this nightmare?

I suddenly realized why it was Miss Elizabeta looked at us the way she did yesterday. She knew it was her last day she'd be seeing us. I whimpered, and grabbed hold of Lovino and started sobbing.

We moved back to the room and sat there in stunned silence, my sobbing the only thing breaking it.

Up until I coughed, and it wasn't like the coughs Kiku requested I make happen, this was a hacking one like I was sick.

"U-um…Lovino…" I muttered, staring at my hands after I pulled them away from my mouth.

Lovino looked and gasped. "Japan, get over here, now."

Kiku got up and ran over, his eyes widening as he saw my hands.

Both of them were completely red, and considering the amount of blood I already lost, it was a safe bet I couldn't loose anymore.

Kiku joined us on the bed and started asking all sorts of questions, all of them too quick for me to understand and answer.

"Slow down!" I finally managed to tell him between questions.

Kiku nodded, examining my hands. "How's your breathing?"

I focused on my breathing. The truth was that it was starting to get really hard.

I winced as Kiku put his hand on my chest where a bruise was, and I could tell by Kiku's frown he wasn't pleased.

"J-Japan…am-am I d-dying?" I asked, feeling tears start to well up in my eyes again.

Everyone froze, staring at Kiku for an answer. But what could Kiku answer? 'Yes, you are, but don't worry because we'll be able to fix it.' That didn't seem right, but it also seemed wrong for him to say I wasn't dying.

Lovino growled, saying, "Of course you're not dying!"

Kiku shook his head, saying, "You are, if the blood loss doesn't kill you first, then you'll choke on your own blood soon enough. From the looks of it, the blood has started filling your lungs…"

We all stared at him horrified. For once in our lives Kiku, expressionless Kiku, was crying. His voice shook as he continued. "A-and I'm-I'm not sure if-if we can fi-fix it."

Alfred stood up and walked over to Yao's and Ivan's unoccupied bed. He pulled the sheets off and started tying them together.

"What are you doing?" Arthur demanded, but my mind had become dazed again, staring at the blood on my hands as I came to the terms that I may not live much longer.

Alfred took one end of the blanket rope and tied it to a bedpost, pulling the rest over to the window. He said, "I'm getting out of here and getting help for Veneziano."

"Bastard, you're crazy! You'll never make it to the ground!" Lovino cried.

Alfred shot back, "I've got to try! What would we do if we lost half of our Italy? Besides, we all agreed he's got the best voice for singing Marukaite Chikyuu! Where. Would. We. Be. Without. Him?"

Alfred saying that caught me off-guard, and I'm sure that if I could've, I would've been blushing from his compliment, but it seemed like I did already loose a lot of blood.

Lovino jumped off the bed and joined him, saying, "Then I'm going too!"

Arthur turned to Ivan, asking, "Can you create a distraction for the matron while they leave?"

"Of course," Ivan replied.

Arthur nodded, turning to Francis, still hopelessly clung to his arm. Arthur sighed and pat Francis on the head, saying, "I'm going to help Ivan with the diversion. Stay here and help Kiku and Yao in anyway they can."

Francis looked at him, but nodded, stepping back and joining us on the bed.

Arthur turned to Alfred and Lovino, saying, "When you hear the first sound, that's when it's safe to go."

"Right," Alfred and Lovino said. Lovino went and opened the window while Arthur and Ivan left.

"Where are we going?" Lovino asked.

Alfred blinked, saying, "One of us is going to find Miss Elizabeta. The other should head for the closest hospital to get a doctor."

"We'll both get Miss Elizabeta," Lovino argued. "She could help Veneziano while they get a proper ambulance over here."

Alfred nodded, just as we heard the first crash downstairs and a screech that came from the matron.

"Good luck," Kiku told them. Yao and Francis echoed them, while I said, "Please stay safe."

"We'll come back," Alfred told us.

They tossed the rope blanket out of the window and started descending.

We looked at Kiku. He had gotten control of his emotions again, and was simply trying to breathe. When he looked back up, he had a determined fire in his eye. He wasn't going to let this play out without fighting it.

Kiku turned to Yao, asking, "Could you grab some medicine from the medicine cabinet?"

"Yes," Yao replied, running out.

I coughed again, feeling more blood covering my hands, and Kiku turned to Francis and said, "Get some damp washcloths and a few towels. We'll need to wipe the blood off Feliciano's hands and make sure he doesn't loose anymore blood."

Francis nodded and ran across the hall. We heard water starting to run in the bathroom. Kiku started telling me to just focus on my breathing and reassuring me that everything would be fine. "Big, even breaths," he said, and I followed exactly what he said.

A few minutes later, Yao and Francis came back in together, Yao carrying a few towels and the pills while Francis carried the damp washcloths.

Francis set to work cleaning off my hands and Yao held a washcloth to catch the blood I coughed up. While they were doing this, Arthur and Ivan reentered.

"She's not happy," Arthur stated, "But at least Alfred and Lovino are gone."

Kiku nodded. He motioned them over and said, "Thanks for the distraction; we were able to get plenty of things. Hopefully Alfred and Lovino will hurry."

Time wore on and after my hands had been cleared of the blood, Arthur and Ivan cleaned the washcloths and brought them back in, because it was clear that I was loosing more and more blood faster and faster, each washcloth was quickly becoming covered in blood – _my_ blood.

The longer this went on and we had no sign from Alfred and Lovino about their success, we grew more and more worried. Arthur and Francis took up position by me, trying to keep me talking. Francis had gripped onto Arthur's arm again, but both of them were focused on keeping me talking. Only it was becoming harder and harder to keep going. Between the coughing and all the blood, I could hardly speak, but I found that my thoughts were gradually becoming more and more scattered, and I was becoming lightheaded.

Kiku seemed to realize this because I heard him mutter something before turning back to what he was doing with the medicine.

"Open up! This is the police!"

We heard the cry outside like a daybreak's bell, and it was a wondrous cry, for sure.

"Feliciano! Keep talking!" Arthur cried, grabbing me when I sputtered to a stop.

I started talking again, but now it was all just random things that I didn't even understand. Babble in a different language was what it was.

"Kiku!" Francis cried.

Kiku nodded. "Yao! Get them up here!" he told Yao from the door. Yao nodded and disappeared down the hall.

We could hear the matron opening the door and asking in a sickly sweet voice, "Is there a problem, officer?"

"We've received reports that you are mistreating the kids here," the officer replied.

"Oh, officer, where would you get that idea?" the matron asked in that same tone.

We all gasped when we heard Miss Elizabeta saying, "I was the one that called them."

"Ma'am, who's the boy up there?" The officer asked. We could just imagine him nodding to the staircase where Yao was probably pretending to hide while still seeing what was going on.

We heard Yao come running back as the matron talked quickly. "Oh, that's just one of the kids. A shy boy, he is. Poor thing."

"Shut up and let us see how Feliciano's doing!"

Lovino's cry was like another bell, and we heard him running up the stairs. Two other sets of footsteps followed and Lovino, Alfred, and Miss Elizabeta all ran into the room.

Right as I coughed up more blood into the washcloth. I couldn't keep myself upright anymore, and I felt my muscles give out as I collapsed sideways.

"No!" Lovino cried, running over to me. "Fratello, talk to me! You're not dead!" He grabbed my hand in a tight grip, but not tight enough to hurt.

"I-I'm not…" I muttered, sputtering out more blood in the process. Now that I was lying sideways, I could feel the blood making it's way into my mouth and forming a pool in my cheek.

We heard one of the officers come in and shouted, "We need a stretcher here ASAP! We've got an injured boy up here!"

Miss Elizabeta crouched down next to the bed in my line of sight. There were tears in her eyes as she asked, "How are you doing, Little Italy?"

Little Italy. That was normally a nickname she used when we were talking alone. It comforted me, enough to try and reply, but I only managed in coughing up more blood.

"How long has this been going on?" the officer asked.

Kiku winced. "He got the majority of bruises you can find on his body last night, along with various cuts and other wounds. Those wounds have been healing fine, but it wasn't until later we came to realize the degree of his internal bleeding…"

The officer nodded as medics entered with a stretcher. I gripped onto Elizabeta, trying to move away from the strangers, but only managed groaning in pain again and coughing up even more blood.

"It's ok," one of the medics told me, "You're going to be fine."

I felt them place a mask over me. The other medic turned to Kiku and asked, "You've been the one treating him so far?"

"Y-yes," Kiku replied, startled.

The medic nodded. "Come with us. You can give us information regarding his condition. Is there anyone he'd want to come with before you guys are placed in police custody?"

We looked at each other, our eyes locking, and Kiku replied, "He'd want all of us there. Including…" He stopped to breathe for a moment, his voice shaking a little. "Including Ludwig and his family, along with Mr. Roderich."

The medic nodded, looking ready to ask something when Miss Elizabeta told them, "Just give me the information regarding where you'll be taking him and I can contact them."

The medic closed his mouth before nodding again. He picked me up and placed me on the stretcher, noticed how I winced.

He pulled up my shirt to see my chest and gasped. "Officer, have a look at this," the other one stated.

The officer looked and shuddered. "Are any of you other kids injured?"

I watched as they all looked at each other, before nodding. Arthur stated, "We've been raped, multiple times. P-poor Feliciano, though, he was always beaten up more than raped…he's got the worse wounds out of everyone here..." _And look where it's gotten him. _Arthur's sentence remained unfinished, but we could tell what he was thinking.

Miss Elizabeta told the officer, "It's best not to ask them. After we get to the hospital and I've contacted the family, they can give a better description. They got their adopted son from here, and he's started to take therapy sessions to help overcome everything that's happened."

The officer nodded, turning to the matron, who followed them up, saying, "You're under arrest."

"What for, officer?" she asked, trying to act clueless.

The officer growled, "For allowing these poor children to be raped and beaten up on a daily basis."

"But, officer, I-"

"I don't want to hear it," the officer growled.

As they were pulling the stretcher out and loading me into the ambulance, I lost consciousness, but I could still feel Lovino's hand in my own.

xxx

When I came around, I was breathing a lot better. I was also in a very nice, very white room. My mind remained foggy for a moment, before I remembered exactly what happened and tried to sit up to look around, only I couldn't. The upper portion of my body had been strapped down to the bed to restrain me from sitting up.

I looked and found that there were a few tubes in my arm, but they had removed the oxygen mask. In the bed next to me…was Lovino, staring at me with a frown on his face.

"Lovino, what-" I started, but he cut across me.

"By the time you arrived, you had already lost too much blood," Lovino explained. "I told them I was willing to act as a donor and give you some of my blood." He pulled up the sleeve and showed a bandage running along his arm, but he grinned and said, "The only thing that matters is that you're doing better."

"Where is everyone?" I asked.

"You just missed them. They went to the matron's court hearing. Arthur and Yao are acting as witnesses to what happened," Lovino explained.

"So, what's going to happen to us now?" I muttered, frowning. Would we be moved to another orphanage? With different kids and a different location…would we never get to see Miss Elizabeta and Ludwig again?

Lovino blinked, saying, "Miss Elizabeta's adopting us."

"Huh?" I stared, surprised.

"Actually, no, that's incorrect," Lovino sighed. "She and Mr. Roderich wanted to adopt all of us, but the police said that wouldn't help, though they agreed with keeping all of us together. They found everyone else different families where they could live and remain close to us. Miss Elizabeta and Mr. Roderich are just adopting you and me."

I frowned, but then smiled again. We were going to get to go live with Miss Elizabeta! No more orphanage and, most importantly, no more living through that hell. Ever again.

Lovino nodded. A nurse walked in at that moment and saw that I was awake. She smiled and picked up the clipboard with what was probably my progress on it. "How are you feeling?" she asked.

"I'm still a little light headed, but I'm feeling much better," I replied, smiling.

"I'm glad to hear it. We got you here just in time," she said, writing on the clipboard. "Of course, if we hadn't had your brother volunteer for the blood transfusion, we might not have been able to save you."

"R-really?" I muttered, startled. Had I really come so close to death?

"Yes," the nurse said. "But you don't need to worry about that anymore. You're recovering with excellent progress, and your doctor will be happy to know you've woken up. I'll go get him now."

The nurse put the clipboard back where it was and left the room to talk to the doctor.

"Fratello, how long have I been out?" I asked, looking at him in concern.

Lovino rubbed the spot on his arm where the bandage was, wincing. "About a week. The nurse was right; you really did come close to death. They said that if it wasn't for Kiku, you probably would've died."

We fell silent, trying to focus on anything but that subject. My mind drifted back to what Lovino told me before the nurse came in. Miss Elizabeta was going to adopt us. All of us would finally have homes.

Lovino broke the silence by saying, "You should've seen everyone when we came out of the ER. I came around to see them and I was able to get some of the information from them."

"What was going on?" I asked.

"They were singing Marukaite Chikyuu," Lovino said. "Arthur explained that it might help you sleep since the doctor's weren't willing to risk giving you some more sleeping pills. I'm guessing it worked?"

I thought about it. I didn't remember much, but when I tried to remember the blackness, there was a warmth with it that told me my friends, my family, were there with me.

Lovino smirked. "You should've seen the police bastards when they realized Ivan used the faucet pipe as a weapon. They agreed it was in self-defense, though, and let him off. I think they were scared of him, though."

We sat there laughing. It was true, Ivan _could_ be scary, you just didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.

"Oh, and they've caught almost everyone that had ever harmed us. One of the first ones they caught was the biker that did this to you," Lovino explained. "He's spending the rest of his life in prison, and then some."

I smiled, letting myself relax. We heard the door open again and I looked. The nurse was back, and a Spaniard was with her. He had messy brown hair and looked like he didn't have a care in the world.

"Hello, Feliciano," he said. "It's good to see you're finally awake. I'm Dr. Antonio."

"Hello," I greeted him.

Antonio walked over to the clipboard and looked at it. He smiled and said, "I can safely say that you are going to be fine. You came through in the end, and we're all happy to know we didn't have to loose you so soon."

I grinned back. The nurse turned as she heard the door open again and chuckled. "Looks like you've got company," she said.

"F-Feliciano?" Ludwig stuttered, walking over.

I grinned wider than before. "Ludwig!"

"Hey, what about the Awesome Me?" Gilbert asked, coming up next to him.

I smiled, just happy to see them.

"So he's going to be fine?" their father asked the doctor.

The doctor nodded. "He is, soon enough we'll be able to remove the tubes, and then he'll only need to remain for another day or two for us to make sure that he's fully ready to leave."

Ludwig sat in the chair sitting next to my bed. "Do you know how scared I was when I walked into the classroom and didn't see you guys there?" he asked.

I shook my head. "We didn't know that we wouldn't be having anymore classes until the matron told us that morning."

Ludwig nodded. "Alfred and Lovino explained that. Miss Elizabeta and Mr. Roderich were trying to explain it to me when Alfred and Lovino came charging in." He lowered his voice, looking at Lovino, and muttered, "Lovino was a mess!"

"I heard you," Lovino growled from the next bed.

We chuckled, and Ludwig continued. "When Alfred and Lovino explained what happened, Miss Elizabeta was shocked, but she didn't waste a moment in calling the police. She asked us why we never told her before and we explained why, and everything that happened."

Dr. Antonio told us, "I can understand why you would think what was told to you guys to be true, but your friends did the right thing in finding Elizabeta and having her call the authorities. I just wish it didn't have to be under such extreme circumstances that caused them to do it."

Ludwig's and Gilbert's father said, "Come on, you two, we have to get going."

"C-Can I stay?" Ludwig asked, looking at me.

"It's fine with me," I told his father.

His father nodded. "Have Elizabeta contact me when you need to be picked up," he told Ludwig before taking Gilbert's hand and leaving.

"I'll leave you kids alone now," Dr. Antonio said.

They left, leaving the room empty except for Lovino, Ludwig, and me.

Ludwig seemed troubled, though.

"What's wrong?" I asked him.

Ludwig sighed, saying, "If we had told someone sooner, this never would've happened. You wouldn't have been hurt to the edge of death, and Francis probably would've never gotten involved and…" I saw tears starting to slide out of his eyes.

Without thinking, I started singing Marukaite Chikyuu. I saw him smile as he and Lovino joined in.

"Fratello, get some more rest," Lovino said when we had finished, turning in his bed so his back was facing us. "You're going to need all the rest you can get."

Ludwig nodded. "He's right; you are going to need the sleep."

"Promise to wake me when everyone else arrives?" I asked, already feeling my eyelids grow heavy.

"Promise," Ludwig replied, and I let myself drift into sleep.

**/AN**

**See? Lovino can be a good guy!**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


	6. Epilogue

That all happened so long ago now, it was like some distant dream. I was released from the hospital a few days later and Miss Elizabeta took Fratello and me to our new home.

Apparently, Miss Elizabeta voiced her concerns about what happened to Mr. Roderich, who was her employer and landlord but, above all else, her friend, and he agreed to see if anything might be done to help us.

Mr. Roderich was also a musician. A famous one, at that. He wasn't always around for this reason, but he treated Lovino and me fairly, and when he was at the house, he would let us listen as he played the piano or violin or some other musical instrument, though he expected us to do our chores. They weren't by any means strenuous, and certainly not hard. Sometimes they didn't take longer than a half hour, and the rest of the time Lovino and I got to play tag or hide and seek, as long as we didn't break anything.

The neighbors were great too. I had to admit, the man next door was my favorite one. He reminded me one myself when the matron still felt like caring for us and it got to the point where I called him 'Grandpa Rome'. It wasn't very long after I started calling him that that Lovino picked up on it as well.

Everyone was glad to see that I was recovering, and we all went back to school on the same day, saying that we wouldn't let something like that happen again and that we'd remain together.

Sadly, this didn't remain to be true. About a year later, Ludwig and Gilbert had to move and say goodbye to us. We were all heartbroken, not wanting to see either of them leave.

It was the last time Ludwig came to visit me that I gave him my push broom to remember me by. In return, he kissed me, but we kept it as our little secret.

I hadn't heard from either of them since.

Kiku and Yao were the next ones to leave, they were being sent to a different high school than us, but promised they'd keep in touch. By this time, we had gotten cellphones and given each other our number, so this was easier to do than before.

Alfred and Arthur left with their family to travel cross-country half a year later, though they messaged us constantly telling us where they were and what they were doing and what happened. They seemed to enjoy life on the road.

Francis, Ivan, Lovino and I remained with each other throughout high school. We graduated together, but took separate paths. Francis became an actor, Lovino bought some land in the tropics and started a tomato farm, and Ivan mysteriously disappeared. We weren't sure what happened to Ivan until we saw him leading a gang with that same faucet pipe from all those years ago…

Me? I followed in Mr. Roderich's footsteps and delved into the arts. Drawing, music, cooking, I wasn't very picky.

Today, all these years later, was the day we were all supposed to meet back up and see what became of our lives. I was already in the coffee shop we agreed to meet up in with Lovino and Francis. All three of us grew up healthy, and our scars had all but disappeared. Lovino and Francis were pleased to know my body had made a full recovery. There wasn't any trace on my body of how close to death I came, all the bruises healed, all the cuts mended.

"No way. Veneziano? Romano? France?"

We looked up at the two blonds standing there staring at us. "America! England!" I greeted up.

We all laughed and they pulled over another table so they could sit. We started talking, catching up on what happened since they left.

England was a magician (though, from what Alfred said, he wasn't a very good one and claimed that he could talk to faeries and a little green flying bunny) and Alfred was…well, Alfred. He mentioned something about being an up-and-coming movie actor, but we didn't really believe him. Arthur claimed that Alfred was living in his basement mooching off him.

"Hey, guys!"

Now it was Yao and Kiku who appeared.

There was more greeting and more catching up.

We got onto the topic of jobs, and immediately Yao said, "Yea, can you believe that after what happened all those years ago, Kiku got himself a scholarship to a school that could properly train him to be a doctor?"

"Yao, you said you wouldn't mention it," Kiku muttered.

"Hey, they deserve to know, especially your first patient," Yao replied.

I grinned, saying, "That's great, Japan!"

Kiku chuckled. "Well, it's not all I do. I do have my share of programming. In my spare time I help Yao run his electronics shop."

"That's awesome!" I told them.

Francis nodded, saying, "I may just have to check it out. Maybe I can get my director to help you guys out by paying for some of your special effects equipment."

"Aiyaa," Yao muttered. "France, you don't need to do that!"

"I insist," Francis told him. "If your special effects are anything like they were back when we shared our history class, my director will be willing to pay for them."

We agreed immediately.

"Hey, what do you think would happen if we took our play from then, and did it now?" I asked.

We all looked at each other.

"But, we don't have the sc-" Arthur started, stopping when he saw me grab my bag and lift it into my lap, pulling out pages that were starting to yellow and deteriorate with age.

"You kept that?" Alfred asked, staring from the bag to the script and back.

I nodded, saying, "That wasn't the only thing." I pulled out the costume. I didn't fit in it anymore, but it hadn't lost its sentimental value and it was something I wasn't going to be willing to get rid of. Every time Miss Elizabeta and Mr. Roderich had Lovino and I clean out our rooms, these three items, the bag I had with the Italian flag on it, the costume from our last play, and said play's script, always stayed.

Francis took it and looked through it. "This is Miss Elizabeta's version," he said.

I nodded. "I asked her for it one day and she gave it to me. I've kept it with me since."

"I can't remain long," Ivan asked, walking up.

I almost didn't recognize him. I had gotten used to seeing the crime boss on TV that looking at Ivan straight in the face, with him giving us that same, warm smile he did when we were younger, before he snuck off to play some trick on the matron to allow us time to do something, seemed strange to see.

"No need to ask how you've been," Francis stated. "Can't change a channel these days without hearing of some raid from your gang or a shootout."

Arthur looked around, asking, "Is everyone here?"

"Everyone except Ludwig," I replied, looking at the familiar faces of all my friends.

We heard sirens. Ivan said, "If we're going to do this, we should hurry."

We all agreed. I pulled out a camera, the self timer already set, and we took a picture of us together.

I got the picture printed and sent everyone a copy. They agreed they'd keep in touch, and that they'd be there if I needed them. I grinned, telling them the same thing. I also invited them to my concert coming up in a few days with Mr. Roderich. That was going to be the day he announced his retirement and that he was passing his legacy onto me.

I was really nervous about this fact, but he said that I was more than ready to take it on. Miss Elizabeta agreed, saying that I had learned everything from Mr. Roderich that I could, and learned some more myself. These days, they were constantly telling me how happy they were to get to have the chance to see and watch Lovino and I grow.

I never doubted them, and I was just happy to know I made them proud. Though I still felt my nerves on the night of my performance.

"Don't worry, Feliciano, you'll do fine," Lovino said from next to me.

Mr. Roderich pat my shoulder saying, "You will. You have already surpassed your teacher."

Miss Elizabeta joined them, grinning as she hugged me. "You'll do fine, Little Italy," she muttered in my ear before smiling and patting me on the head.

I grinned back as Mr. Roderich said, "Come on. We're starting."

We walked out on stage. Our concert had sold old almost instantly, to the point of where we agreed to allow it to be broadcast on TV.

I pulled out a violin and made sure it was tuned right while Mr. Roderich sat down at the piano. This wasn't just any violin though; this was Mr. Roderich's old violin that he gave to me to practice on. I had made sure to treat it with care and kept it in top condition.

Then we let the music start. Everyone fell silent immediately, catching every note we played, every tone we hit. People had been asked to describe our works before, but they simply said they couldn't, just that it seemed like we told stories through our music.

I never admitted it, but I did, indeed, tell stories. After Mr. Roderich had me start writing music, I went back to my roots and started taking some of the greatest battles in history, designing music around them to show the battle that took place, and it never ceased to amaze me how amazing it was to listen as everything came to life through the music.

We finished the song and Mr. Roderich stood up, walking over to the microphone. "I am very pleased to see such a turnout," he said, smiling. "It's also a pleasure to know that so many of you love my adopted son's music so much."

No, we never kept it a secret I was adopted. It was bound to get out eventually. We, also, never kept it a secret about how close to death I had come, but that was still a touchy subject and everyone, especially the press, knew better than to go into it.

"But tonight, I have an announcement," Mr. Roderich continued. "I'm retiring."

There were gasps and cries. The crowd didn't seem happy, but who could blame them? Mr. Roderich started a new age in music, and everyone said they would regret when he decided to retire.

Mr. Roderich held up his hand, making everyone fall quiet immediately, and said, "This doesn't mean my legacy will die. I hope all of you will continue to follow this legacy as Feliciano takes it further and gives it new life."

Everyone started cheering, chanting my name. I smiled and waved. Mr. Roderich walked up and hugged me, before going back to the piano and we played a few more songs.

The last song of the night. I walked up to the microphone and said, "This is a special song for my friends. If I didn't have any of them, I wouldn't be here today, and each and every one of you know who you are."

I nodded to Mr. Roderich, not missing his grin. He started playing in time with my violin.

And I started singing Marukaite Chikyuu. It was the one song I kept close to my heart and, even after all this time, it comforted me. Of course, I wouldn't have been able to learn the violin and set out the keys for the piano without Miss Elizabeta's help, but I was so happy to see it all pay off in the end. Even in my ears, the song was as beautiful today as it was back then.

xxx

In one of the top boxes in the stadium where they could clearly see the concert, everyone watched in delight as Feliciano started playing.

Yao grinned, saying, "Same old Feliciano. In Alfred's words, where would we be without him?"

"You got that right," Arthur replied, laughing.

Just as Feliciano hit the chorus, Francis started singing, adding France's version to Italy's.

Feliciano wouldn't ever come to know this fact, but by the time he had finished singing, Arthur, Kiku, Yao, Alfred, Ivan, Francis and backstage where Lovino was watching, they had all completed singing with him, remembering those harsh times they lived through and still finding their own comfort in the song, and in each other.

xxx

The theater was almost empty and I was just leaving, when I thought I saw it. I looked again and, sure enough, standing there staring at me was a brisk German. A very familiar brisk German. One that just became more familiar when he was joined by an albino with a chick on his head who said, "Hey, West, want to go get something to drink?"

I could've sworn the German met my gaze, before turning to the albino and saying something in what I would've guessed was German, but I couldn't tell. Then they both left the theater.

I walked back to the room that was assigned to me and pulled out two pictures. The one I took with everyone a few days ago, and the one that we took when Ludwig was still in the orphanage, before Francis showed up. Then I slipped them back into my bag, wondering if I really did just see my childhood friend.

But, that couldn't be right…Surely if it was Ludwig, he would've said something…

**/AN**

**Finis. So, what'd you guys think? I tried picking professions I felt they would be good at.**

**R&R Please!**

**AN/**


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